Indiana Pioneers Health Information Exchange System for Midwest

Indianapolis, Bloomington, and Cincinnati are pioneering a new frontier in medical technology called Health Information Exchange or HIE networks. Now medical information can follow a patient across state lines, leading to better all around communication when it comes to keeping people in Indianapolis and the Midwest healthy.

Three Midwest medical organizations have started sending clincial test results, reports and other medical information through their health information exchanges. This is a landmark medical breakthrough in the United States, and the first time medical information has been shared in this broad of a way.

Healthbridge of Cincinnati, Ohio, Indiana Health Information Exchange in Indianapolis, Indiana, and HealthLINC in Bloomington, Indiana have joined together in their commitment to innovation when it comes to sharing medical information for the treatment of patients. The flow of information electronically to doctors has been a part of each regions medical community for years, but the step beyond to connect their different regions proves that they are on the cutting edge of the medical world.

By sharing information in this way, patients can visit doctors who are connected to the network. People can feel assured that their care givers have the most up to date information, tests, charts and notes. If a child visits a doctor in Indianapolis, her family doctors in Bloomington will have immediate access to the care she recieved their. And her doctors visit in Indianapolis will most likely be less encumbered by extra and unneccessary or repeat tests, because of their knowledge of her medical history through the Health Information Exchange.

J. Marc Overhage MD PhD and CEO of IHIE explains, “This connectivity among communities will undoubtedly mean fewer repeated tests and better care coordination between rural and urban providers. If a patient has a provider in a different community, as long as they are part of one of the three HIE networks, their care teams will now have more complete medical information available to them much more quickly, enabling more efficient care and better health outcomes.”

Health Information Exchange systems such as the one now implemented in Indiana connect up to 15,000 physicians at 50 hospitals allowing for the secure sharing of information for over 12 million patients.